The blue-eyed boy of the fashion circuit (who is not-so-boy anymore) just launched his first flagship store in India. The venue is Carma, a feted designer space nestled close to Delhi’s Qutab Minar. This reinvented 14th century stable was previously a multi-designer space that stocked the likes of Manish Arora, Rajesh Pratap Singh and Abraham & Thakore. It was famously listed in Vogue as a Shopping All Over The World destination alongside Prada and Hermes stores. The management’s decision to go solo with Sabyasachi has understandably ruffled a few fashion netas.

I’d first heard Sabyasachi at a panel at the Lakme Fashion Week in Bombay in 2006. I don’t remember the precise topic of the panel discussion but I do remember a rather emotional young designer speak of his stumbling foray into the fashion industry, his family’s disapproval, his pain, and finally his rise to success.

The Sabyasachi I met today was a different man. He spoke of consumer types and sales percentages. He elaborated on wardrobe width and wardrobe depth and how people tend to go for the latter during an economic recession (Fashion also has smart-sounding phrases. What did you think?).

More in Lounge later. For now, I leave you with a video of the man himself, talking of ten wardrobe essentials for women. They’re almost all “back to the roots” themed. Some are very basic but I’d say it’s the first women’s must-have list, even in India, that doesn’t include a white shirt and a pair of black pants:

embroidered jootis, woven saree, your mother’s wedding saree, mogras, Janpath-style batua, woven/tribal handwork dupatta, ornate Indian earrings, “folksy” choli, full-length skirt, basic churidar.

I check eight out of 10. My mother’s wedding saree was vintage silk and true to old silk’s difficult ways, it tore on a bad day. But the “folksy” choli hunt shall begin. You check?